New research from Quilter Financial Planning’s behavioural consultancy has found that 77% of female paraplanners do not want to become financial advisers compared to just 38% of male paraplanners.
The data found that just 6% of female paraplanners said that they would like to go on to become a financial adviser while 17% said maybe.
Conversely, 41% of male paraplanners said that they would like to become a financial adviser with 21% saying maybe.
The research into 120 paraplanners also explored whether these results were correlated to the length of time respondents had been in their roles and looked at those who had been in their roles for three years or less. Male paraplanners earlier in their career were more likely to consider a career in advice whereas female paraplanners were more likely to not want to advise. Even though most female paraplanners had or were in the process of obtaining QCF level 4.
Mark Pittaccio, business consultant and behavioural economist at Quilter Financial Planning says:
“Paraplanning has previously been viewed as a gateway to becoming a financial adviser but this research shows that it is becoming a profession within its own right. However, while this is positive it is odd that there continues to be such a big difference between the aspirations of female and male paraplanners.
“The research shows that even when individuals are attracted into the industry the decision to become an adviser is heavily biased towards males. Surveys of financial adviser communities have shown that misperceptions about the nature of financial planning, particularly amongst women, strongly affect their interest in becoming financial planners. There continues to be a perception that advice requires strong sales skills and therefore revealing that advice is instead far more about creating long-lasting relationships with clients may help attract more women to the advice profession.
“It is incredibly important that we breakdown whatever systems are in place that are contributing to these differences in aspirations and ultimately improve the profession.
“One of the points we need to address is the vicious circle where women see fewer visible role models in the profession as they are underrepresented and then are less likely to a pursue a career in the sector. Breaking this cycle will go some way to helping to improve the diversity of the profession.”
